Stargate Universe - "Intervention"

Lt. Johansen (Alaina Huffman) wakes up to find herself not aboard Destiny.

Photo Credit: Syfy

Review by Paul Steven Brown

'Stargate Universe'
Season 2 - Episode 1
"Intervention"

One of the dangers of having a cliffhanger between seasons is the chance that any production changes will be noticed. Despite the fact that only a few minutes have transpired between the final episode of season one and the first episode of season two of 'Stargate Universe', there have been months between the production of the pair. Luckily, none of the main cast look noticeably different. However, there are a few new faces hanging around the Lucian Alliance that weren't there before, plus one obvious absence.

Good money said that Kiva (Rhona Mitra) wasn't going to live through her shoot out with Telford (Lou Diamond Phillips). Mitra was probably busy filming the ABC summer series 'The Gates' and couldn't return. Also, it was very obvious that one of her subordinates, Varro (Mike Dupod), was being set up to take over as person of interest amongst the Lucians.

As for the new faces, Robert Knepper was suddenly part of the Lucian Alliance. I don't mind since he was one of the few positive aspects of the fourth season of 'Heroes'. His presence and the build up of Varro's character pretty much sealed the deal that there were going to be Lucians aboard the Destiny after the stand off was resolved.

Another face that wasn't around the end of the last season was that of Lucian Alliance engineer Ginn (Jen McNiven who played Hildy on 'Mad Men' a for few seasons). She's pretty, she had lines, and she got thrown around by Kiva's replacement, Dannik. This told me that she would end up betraying Dannik and be one of the Lucians that remained on Destiny.

While there weren't very many surprises about the resolution of the stand off between the Destiny gang and the Lucian Alliance, it was still handled well. Robert Carlyle as Dr. Rush got to be the hero while trying to out maneuver and out bluff Dannick. Scott and Greer got to run around and shoot guns. Col. Young got to throw a punch. This is all typical action stuff, but it was performed well.

The only real surprise was the loss of Lt. Johansen's baby due to TJ's gunshot wound. I really don't think this was done for shock and I don't see it as a cop out either. However, it did seem like an excuse to toss in a metaphysical subplot involving Caine, who, with a handful of others, had elected to remain on a very habitable planet. Maybe it wasn't too habitable, since it was strongly suggested that Johansen had been pulled into some sort of afterlife. The baby could stay, but TJ couldn't, so that's where I draw my conclusion. The real question is whether or not we'll see more divine intervention from Caine in future episodes.

At first it seemed like Chloe's gunshot wound recovery was just sloppy writing. However, she was shown at the end of the episode examining the almost healed injury. This was only hours later, so something is up. This may have something to do with the aliens that had kidnapped her and Rush last season. Did they perform some experiments on her?

I was happy to see that all of the supporting members of the Destiny crew had returned. I really like Rush's science team and I look forward to more screen time for Brody, Park, and Volker. Also, it looks like Lt. James and Sgt. Riley have survived as well.

With the addition of the a handful of Lucian Alliance soldiers to the Destiny compliment, it looks like we're getting an even bigger supporting cast. I wonder how this is going to work. We've already had the military and civilians coming into conflict over how the ship should operate, now there's going to be a third element. This almost feels like the makings of the 'Star Trek: Voyager' set up which had Federation and Maquis crew members sharing responsibilities. Somehow, I have a feeling it won't go that smoothly.